Happy 2000th birthday, Caligula! Love you so much! My sweet baby!
fyeahhistorymajorheraldicbeast:
Top: Favorite Roman emperor is Elagabalus.
Bottom: Even Classics majors don’t know who he is.
bluesnkitchens.tumblr.com
You know, Caligula’s turning 2000 at the end of the month.
Just thought I’d tell people.
We should have a birthday party.
I second this motion.
Domitian, who was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers upon his brother Titus’ death, possessed the mental ability of the Flavian family, joined to the vices and cruelty of the Claudian. He surrounded himself with spies and informers, and put to death the noblest men of his time. Notorious for his cruelty, he is said to have invented a new method of torture which involved burning the sexual organs of his victims.
The rulers commonly known as the Five Good Emperors were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. The term Five Good Emperors was coined by the political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli in 1503:
From the study of this history we may also learn how a good government is to be established; for while all the emperors who succeeded to the throne by birth, except Titus, were bad, all were good who succeeded by adoption, as in the case of the five from Nerva to Marcus. But as soon as the empire fell once more to the heirs by birth, its ruin recommenced.Machiavelli argued that these adopted emperors, through good rule, earned the respect of those around them:
Titus, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, and Marcus had no need of praetorian cohorts, or of countless legions to guard them, but were defended by their own good lives, the good-will of their subjects, and the attachment of the senate.
